The Syracuse basketball squad begins its NCAA Tournament journey on Thursday against a dangerous and talented Baylor bunch.
The Syracuse basketball squad and its fan base didn’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday. That’s good news. The bad news is that SU (20-13) is playing its inaugural tilt in March Madness far from home, and versus an exceptional foe in Baylor (19-13).
The ‘Cuse, seeded No. 8 in the West Region, will square off on Thursday evening with the ninth-seeded Bears, out of the Big 12 Conference, in a round of 64 duels at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City. As we all know, the Orange finished the 2018-19 regular season tied for sixth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Baylor wrapped things up in fourth place in the Big 12. Both teams lost in the quarterfinals of their respective league tournaments, albeit to the eventual champions, Duke and Iowa State.
As I recently documented, the Bears don’t have a long-time history of NCAA tourney appearances, but Baylor has performed exceedingly well of late in the Big Dance, led by its terrific head coach, Scott Drew. Syracuse, meanwhile, is making its 40th trip to March Madness, and its 34th under legendary boss Jim Boeheim. Odds-makers out in Las Vegas view SU as a slight favorite to prevail, and I fully anticipate that this encounter will prove closely fought.
One key for the ‘Cuse is the return of star junior wing Tyus Battle, who missed the ACC Tournament but will compete in the Big Dance. That’s huge, as the Orange is a much deeper unit with Battle on the floor. Hopefully, he can shake off any rust in an ultra-quick manner.
The Bears possess an NCAA NET rating of No. 39 and are 1-2 in games at neutral sites. Syracuse is No. 42 in the NCAA NET system and has forged a 1-3 mark on neutral courts so far during the 2018-19 campaign.
Overall, SU is 2-0 against Baylor, however, such a small sample size doesn’t provide any indication to me of how this match-up will go. Prepare yourself for a slugfest on Thursday night, because the Bears and the ‘Cuse can struggle to score, and each owns a formidable defense.
It’s not a secret that the Orange isn’t a stellar shooting crew, although Baylor doesn’t light it up from the field, the charity stripe or beyond the arc, either. Two critical components for Syracuse are to connect on a solid clip from downtown and force the Bears into a lot of miscues that result in easy transition buckets.
While SU will have a clear height edge over Baylor, the Bears are a fierce offensive-rebounding outfit, and the ‘Cuse must control the glass if it wants to succeed. Giving Baylor a large amount of second-chance points could prove quite detrimental.
"Boeheim had this to say about the Bears, via an announcement on cuse.com: “I’ve seen Baylor a little bit. They’re a very, very good team. That’s what you’re going to get in this tournament.”"
That summation is absolutely accurate, and my fingers are crossed that the Orange handles its business. Survive, and advance.